All Rise...

Judge P.S. Colbert refuses even to give his name, rank and serial number.

The Charge

quot;This film's plot is fictional. Similarities to actual events and real
people are intended."

The Case

East beats West in For Eyes Only, a Cold War espionage adventure from
Communist bloc Germany, clearly designed to checkmate that secret agent playboy
of the western world, Bond. James Bond.

Double agent Hansen (Alfred Müller, The Rabbit Is Me) has infiltrated the
Military Intelligence Division (MID), an American cabal dedicated to fomenting
discontent that will lead to civil war in Berlin, and necessitate the
intervention of American and NATO forces, which will then work to drive Russia
out of Deutschland.

Hansen regularly commutes between East and West Berlin (through a sewer
pipe), ostensibly for the purpose of getting American spies in and out of the
Axis stronghold. Lately, however, an inordinate number of Americans are being
caught by the Stasi, and the MID are growing suspicious of Hansen—a former
East German who officially renounced his citizenship in order to
defect—despite the repeated assurances of confidence made by his
highly-placed commanding officer, Major Collins (Helmut Schreiber).

But as more and more Western agents fail to return from recon missions in
the east, even Collins' trust is beginning to erode, spurring Hansen to work
faster on his own recon work for the GDR; lest he be apprehended before giving
the Communists enough information to head off the Americans at the pass.

This is all pretty standard stuff: conversations are either formal and
clipped or glib and flippant, depending on who's involved. There are
pocket-sized gadgets for the purpose of getting into locked rooms, as well as
for taking photos and making secret tape recordings. There are knockout drops
and modified karate moves, employed to dispatch troublemakers. There are speedy
car rides involving much nervous glancing into rear view mirrors. There are
unsmiling villains, raffish wolves, and coquettish women on the make; plenty of
whiskey, cigarettes, and a snappy jazz score with rumbling bass guitar runs.

Actually, only two things seem out of the ordinary here: The
"sexuality" of the characters is almost comically chaste in comparison
to James Bond and his contemporaries of the era, and here, of course, the heroes
and villains are reversed, with several insinuations made that the Americans
have absorbed not only Gestapo tactics, but ex-Gestapo personnel for key
positions, as well.

Though reportedly a huge hit in Eastern Germany upon its release (making
Müller a superstar there in the process), For Eyes Only—while
certainly valuable as historical artifact—probably won't cut the muster
with most fans of the (western) spy genre, bereft as it is of any real action.
Let's face it, James Bond movie fans aren't returning time and again for
excessive yacking and modest ladies and gentlemen who respect curfews!

A word of caution: The American characters often speak English to each
other, but once a conversation between them starts, their voices are drowned out
by narrator Gerry Wolff, who translates aloud in German. In order for
English-speaking audiences to stay with these conversations, English subtitles
are provided, though it does take some getting used to, as you can hear the
English dialog underneath if you strain to listen, and this can divert your
attention—be prepared to back up often or miss key plot
points—which, again, considering how little real action occurs, are often
advanced through dialog.

The film is brought to us by the DEFA Film Library at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, reportedly the only archive outside of Europe devoted to
the study and collection of East German films. Presented in its original black
and white, For Eyes Only gets a fairly decent transfer, though the image
often tends toward softness, and there is an occasional pan-and-scan effect as
result of the fact that the original 2.35 aspect ratio has been modified to
1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. The 2.0 mono soundtrack is clear and vivid, if
unspectacular.

Bonus features include three PDF files (two essays and a "teaching
guide"), a limited selection of cast and crew bios and filmographies, and
most importantly, a pair of vintage East German newsreels: "A U.S. Agent in
the GDR," (1956), and "In the Heart of U.S. Military Espionage,"
(1975). Both short subjects concern former Stasi Agent Horst Hesse, allegedly
the real-life role model for Hansen.

Hesse was hailed as an Eastern-bloc hero in 1956 for infiltrating Western
Intelligence and smuggling information back to the GDR that exposed Allied
attack plans, and led to the capture of 137 U.S. secret agents behind enemy
lines. Following the destruction of the Berlin wall in 1989, and the subsequent
acquisition of GDR and Stasi documents, Hesse discovered that he had actually
taken part in a false flag operation. Apparently, there were no real Western
attack plans, and the agent had been used by the Stasi as a patsy, in order to
drum up popular GDR support at home.

Or at least, that's what they want us to think…

The Verdict

Due to the sensitive issues involved, this matter has been transferred to an
off-site tribunal, held in an undisclosed location. No further information is
available at this time.